Rev 9:3 “And there came out of the smoke *d Locusts upon the earth and unto them was given *e power, as the *f scorpions of the earth have power.”
Notes from the G Bible *d- Locusts are false teachers, heretics, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, doctors, bachelors & masters which forsake Christ to maintain false doctrine. (A few more words in this caption I couldn’t translate)
*e- false and deceivable doctrine which is pleasant to the flesh
*f- that is secretly, to persecute and to sting with its tail as scorpions does such is the fashion of the hypocrites
Ty.
The scorpions are on the earth already. The locusts come out of smoke (deception )unto the earth to cause more spiritual destruction, lies,etc. Who is their king? Appolyon..satan.they can't hurt those with the seal of God. The truth.
They come up out of the Abyss!
Yes
The Greek word for this is -- 'Pharmakeia'. It is defined as-- (1) the use or the administering of drugs, (2) poisoning, (3) sorcery, and magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it. (4) metaph. the deceptions and seductions of idolatry.
When the children of God are wittingly caused to stumble and be harmed by those of influence and authority, this is indeed 'Pharmakeia'. It is written these who do 'pharmakeia' will not only face death, but will experience a second death.
What is the "second death"? It is God's condemnation of being thrown into the 'Lake of fire' to those who committing 'Pharmakeia' will be condemned to. The 'Lake of fire' is made of two things.
Jesus reveals the fire. He teaches us it is made of unquenchable fire:
Unquenchable means the fire is impossible to satisfy, suppress or destroy. The fire is inextinguishable. Nothing or no one will be able to put it out.
The second element in the lake of fire is brimstone, as revealed by John (Revelation 21:8). Brimstone is none other than burning sulfur. Sulfur is an explosive element that’s difficult to extinguish. It is a lemon-yellow colored stone that, when ignited, turns into liquid fire. It has a rich, fluorescent-type deep cobalt bluish color as it burns. Sulfur does not glow red. It burns blue. A blue-colored flame is much more intense. Also, the flame is only visible in the darkness. God caused fire and brimstone (sulfur) to rain down on Sodom and Gomorrah from heaven because of his intense displeasure (Genesis 19:24). Brimstone symbolizes God’s intense anger or wrath (Deuteronomy 29:23; Psalm 11:6).
I find it interesting that some scholars say in the land of Edom (Isaiah 34:5-10) is to be the location of the 'Lake of Fire'. In Greek, the land of Edom is called "Idumea'. Does anyone know where 'Idumea' was? I believe this interpretation tells us something and is a contender for such a place, but actually it lies beyond the realm of heaven and present Earth.
The Lake of Fire is a physical place beneath the surface of the Earth, you can see it occasionally when a volcano erupts.
Or found in Idumea.....
Idumea is Edom. The Lake of Fire is not in Edom. The center of the earth is an iron core. This core rotates. If you're sitting on this core as it rotated, you would always be climbing up the sides of it. This is why it is called the bottomless pit. The Lake of Fire, as the scriptures tell, is below the sea.
If read my original comment, I said that "some scholars" state this.
"I find it interesting that some scholars say in the land of Edom (Isaiah 34:5-10) is to be the location of the 'Lake of Fire'."
These are scholars stating this, not me. I don't share your personal belief. The land of Edom includes the Dead Sea. How fitting and is part of the Great Rift. How fitting if the depths of the Earth opened up there in the end times?
“For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion. And the streams [of Edom] shall be turned into pitch, and the dust into brimstone, and the land [of Edom] shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night or day; the smoke shall go up for the age [not forever see Hebrew]” from generation to generation it shall lie waste. This burning of Edom (an area that borders the southern and southeastern portions of the Dead Sea) occurs when “the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll” (Isaiah 34:4)
I stand corrected.
Fellow traveler, I find there is always more to learn. Each day I wake up to a new day of learning. The notes that u/Sassafras11 posted from the 1560 Geneva Bible is a new learning for me and connects with the meaning of 'Pharmakea'. These people who are in positions of authority (false teachers, heretics, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, doctors, bachelors & masters which forsake Christ to maintain false doctrine) and are purposely leading the innocent astray, especially the children, and causing all to stumble, be inflicted and harmed, it is only fitting death is not their only punishment, but the Second Death, the Lake of Fire to which we just discussed.
What is especially eye-opening to me is the use of the word 'locusts'. In the Greek (G200) the word is 'akris' and is defined as:
"a locust, particularly that species which especially infests oriental countries, stripping fields and trees. Numberless swarms of them almost every spring are carried by the wind from Arabia into Palestine, and having devastated that country migrate to regions farther north, until they perish by falling into the sea."
Interesting that Strong's Concordance defines the geographic location. It mentions the "numberless swarms" of locusts to which perhaps the numbers are are numberless worldwide. In Rev. 9:3 "locusts" represents:
"A description of the malignant spirits invading the world, taken from their nature, power, form and order. From their nature, for that they are like unto certain locust, in quickness, subtilty, hurtfulness, number, and such like in this verse."
"From their power, for that they are as the scorpions of the earth, of a secret force to do hurt."
"Scorpions" comes from the Greek word (G4651), ' skorpios'. A scorpion, the name of a little animal, somewhat resembling a lobster, which in warm regions lurk, esp. in stone walls; it has a poisonous sting in its tail.
Strong's Concordance doesn't provide a metaphoric meaning to either "locust" and "scorpion". Strong's is also biased and not the best concordance to use. However, it is a good place to start. My thoughts are -- since the authors of the 1560 Geneva Bible are William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, and Thomas Sampson, I'd like to know the source to their metaphoric understanding of this. It does indeed correlate to the actual meaning of 'Pharmakeia' (G5331), to which the word can be found in Revelations (9:21; 18:23) and Exodus 7:11; 7:22; 8:18, Isaiah 47:9, Galatians 5:20; 5:20.
From that the Geneva Bible notes state:
"For our battle is not here with flesh and blood, but with powers, Ephesians 6:12 . This place of the power of the Devils, generally noted in this verse, is particularly declared afterwards in the three next verses, Revelation 9:4-6.
Thank you for your response! You offer many great insights! I had to post when I saw the G notes describing people in positions in authority teaching false doctrine. It really hit me, that false doctrine isn’t necessarily just Biblical doctrine but any thing that is deceptive and FALSE. Now that you mention pharmakea (which is what will deceive all nations Rev 18:23), it’s clear to me what that is. I was trying to find the etymology of the words doctrine & medicine/medical and really wasn’t satisfied with what I came up with for medicine. Doctrine was from docere (to teach) and doctor stemmed from this I believe. For medicine, only one source said it came from Medea - Greek- Goddess of illusion. Which if you read about her she was very skilled in sorcery. So I made the connection.. Doctor is a teacher of (false doctrine) sorcery/medicine/Pharmakea. Now, False doctrine has been handed down over the centuries, not just medical but law, astronomy, religion etc. I was trained in health care etc, so I’m not calling out all people. The key is Christ, when we are born again in the Spirit, then we have the Spiritual discernment that others don’t have.. but you do have to Seek God for it! Many people are believers but maybe in the infant stage of belief. (I’m not lecturing lol, just most people I know are not interested in this like you and me)! Thanks again! I hope to exchange again! In hurry with this response so if it’s rambling I apologize
Yeah, every sideways mocking of God or His Son.
1 more interesting: Rev 9:5 And to them was commanded that they should not kill *i them, but that they should be *k vexed five months, and that their pain that comets of a *l scorpion, when he hath stung a man.
*i- though the elect be hurt, yet they cannot perish *k-the elect for a certain space and at times are in trouble *l-for at the beginning, the sting of their conscience seem as nothing, but except that some seek remedy, they perish *m-such is the terror of the unbelieving conscience which has no assurance of mercies feel the judgment of God against it, when men embrace error and rescues the true implications of God’s Word. ***”sting of conscience- almost like a sting of a shot-💉
Refuse not rescue